Sydney Longes was one of very few First World War Conscientious Objectors who served in a military unit, but still managed to keep by his principles. Sydney's experiences show some of the bureaucratic red tape and frustrations of a CO trying to negotiate his place within the conscriptionist system where guidance, for civil and military authorities, CO and Non-CO alike was fragmentary at best. Sydney was working as an accounts officer for the London and South Western Railway in 1916 when, with the introduction of Conscription, he was called before the New Malden Tribunal. He stated clearly that he was willing only to serve in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), refusing to be part of a system that killed, but resolutely determined to help save lives instead, a position that matched his strong religious principles. The Tribunal refused his application, which would normally have meant a swift arrest and transfer to a combatant unit under armed guard. In Sydney's case, however, he was not called up. It is possible that his work at Nine Elms Station was regarded as in the public interest, or his age (39 in 1916, putting him at the top end of the range eligible for Conscription) kept him from being called up. It was only in May 1918, with the Military Service Act extended to conscript men up to 51 years of age, that Sydney was forced into the army. Unusually though, he was placed into the Railway Transport Corps, part of the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC). Out of all the service and logistical corps that COs were forced into during the war, the RASC was unique in that it was a combatant unit. Soldiers in the RASC were, as much as any other, capable of and expected to, take arms when neccessary. Sydney agreed to the call up when assured that he would work as a non-combatant, a rare concession that suggests the need for men in the RASC was acute. By May 1918, the British Army had stripped as many men as possible from service and support units to reinforce it's rapidly collapsing front-line strength. Sydney's compromise status as a non-combatant in the RASC shows both his decision to work as an alternativist CO, in addition to attesting to the hideous casualty rate and pointless slaughter of the war.

Do you have more information or a photos of SYDNEY H LONGES? Let us know